


What Remains

by AngelicSentinel



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Poetry, Post-All That Remains, Sestina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-08-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 14:52:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2195976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelicSentinel/pseuds/AngelicSentinel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nights are hard after All that Remains. It's then the demons call the loudest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Remains

‘What has magic touched that it does not spoil?’  
That’s the question lingering in your mind,  
That ghosts your thoughts with every step you take,  
That the demons whisper low when you sleep  
To your weak heart. ‘It is simple,’ they say,  
‘Let us in; we will make it go away.’

Of course, they cannot make it go away.  
You know that everything they touch they spoil,  
Your keen cold eyes see past the lies they say,  
Family but memories in your mind,  
Faint teardrops on the pillows when you sleep,  
Simulacrum only, the forms they take,

Mother, Father, Sister—all dead. They take  
The memories; the monsters claw away  
At your reason in your dreams as you sleep:  
‘We will make them live again.’ NO! They spoil  
Even Carver who lives and pays no mind  
To the life left behind. Nothing to say:

As you sit, head in palms, Nothing to say.  
You’ve nothing left for the demons to take  
Except sanity, what’s left of your mind,  
Your quiet thoughts traveling far away,  
Beyond Kirkwall, a place dark thoughts can’t spoil,  
A golden valley, sun, and blissful sleep. 

You look at the moon while you try to sleep,  
Pay no attention to what your thoughts say,  
Is what your magic does to save or spoil?  
Waking dreams, restless nights. For it to take  
Your sleep—would that the magic pass away,  
Take the demons with it, leave a calm mind.

Not tranquility, no death of your mind,  
Just your thoughts, silence as you try to sleep,  
No whispers, all the demons sent away,  
From this empty house whose walls cannot say  
What passes behind them. What’s left to spoil?

The things your vulnerable mind will say,  
While lovers leave and your sleep will not take—  
Away thoughts! There’s nothing left here to spoil.


End file.
